811.917/227
The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
No. 661
Chungking, October 2,
1942.
[Received October 30.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my telegram, no.
1131 of October 2, 4 p.m.,22
in reference to the complaint of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs concerning
articles unfavorable to China published in American magazines and
newspapers, and to enclose for the information of the Department copy of a
memorandum of conversation between Mr. Shao Yu-lin, Chief of the Information
Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Edmund Clubb, Second
Secretary of this Embassy.
I learned a few days ago that at a recent meeting of the Executive Yuan the
matter of articles unfavorable to China appearing in the American press was
discussed, and it has also been intimated to me that at this meeting there
was comment on American press editorials regarding the retirement of Dr. Hu
Shih as Ambassador at Washington, there being some inclination to believe
that these editorials commendatory of Dr. Hu Shih and expressing regret at
his replacement were in fact intended to be critical of the Chinese
Government.
While I have been seeing the Political Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs23 recently—and since the
date of the reported meeting of the Executive Yuan—he has not mentioned the
subject to me in any way. If he had done so, I should have taken occasion to
explain to him in the usual formula the matter of freedom of press in the
United States.
The Chinese Government and the Kuomintang are supersensitive to all criticism
or comment in any way unfavorable to China, notwithstanding that some such
criticism may at times be well deserved and perhaps may even be
beneficial.
I have suggested in my telegram that the Department of State may wish to
indicate the reply, if any, to be made to the representations of the Chief
of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
[Page 158]
Needless to say, the articles of which Mr. Shao complained have not been
published in China. Respectfully yours,
[Enclosure]
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Second Secretary of
Embassy in China (Clubb)
[Chungking,] October 1, 1942.
I called by appointment on Mr. Shao Yü-lin, Chief of Information
Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, informing him that Mr.
Vincent (for whom he had asked when he phoned yesterday) was at present
not well and that I therefore came in the latter’s stead.
Mr. Y. S. Ch’en was also present, evidently chiefly in the capacity of
interpreter.
Mr. Shao stated that he spoke on behalf of the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs. It had been noted, he said, that there had recently appeared in
American magazines and newspapers items unfavorable in their attitude
toward China. Representative of such articles he would cite one written
by Edgar Snow and published in the Saturday Evening
Post, and another item, comprising an anonymous letter, printed
in the July Atlantic Monthly. He gave me short
surveys of the two items in question “for reference”. He said that, when
recently news came out in regard to labor strikes in American industry,
for instance, the Chinese Government had kept that news out of the
columns of the Chinese press by reason of its care for Chinese relations
with the United Nations in general and the United States in particular.
He said that if items such as the article by Snow and the anonymous
letter were permitted to be published in American magazines and
newspapers it was to be feared that they might cause misunderstanding
between the two concerned peoples, and the Ministry therefore desired
that the matter be brought to the attention of the Department of State
with the aim that such items should not be permitted to appear in the
future.
I said that, as Mr. Shao of course knew, the American press prior to the
war was generally free from restrictions, that I was not myself aware of
just what censorship was being imposed at the present time, but that I
would lay the matter together with the Ministry’s request before the
Ambassador.
